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Rise of Crime in the Period 1830-1860 Paul Dolan Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 30 Article 3 Issue 6 March-April Spring 1940 Rise of Crime in the Period 1830-1860 Paul Dolan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation Paul Dolan, Rise of Crime in the Period 1830-1860, 30 Am. Inst. Crim. L. & Criminology 857 (1939-1940) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. THE RISE OF CRIM'E IN THE PERIOD 1830-1860 PAuL DOLAN' One of the most absorbing subjects of the great middle period in American history is the social transition which was effected. The scope of such movement would demand greater treatment that could even be thought of in a brief survey, but perhaps a somewhat su- perficial discussion of one particular phase of this general topic may aid a bit in comprehending the full force of the movement. The chief characteristic of this period seems to be the relentless surge of man against his natural surroundings-especially that to the west of him, the great ever-present, ever-diminishing country "over yonder." This constant surging, disgourging, and engourg- ing mass movement could not help but leave its mark. We are not interested here with effects in the long run or evidences pointing to what was finally accomplished by this westward drive, but rather let us look at one of the phases of the movement, somewhat as one would at a particular mud geyser among the many phenomena at Yellowstone, and see how it reacts just a bit apart from the pano- ramic whole. Crime in its origins and development presents a sorry study even in this enlightened year. Probably the reason is that any study of it always demands a view-point from which to attack the prob- lem. First of all you must know what is the law and perhaps why it is, which latter in itself is deeply philosophic if we include the spirit as well as the letter. Secondly, we have to appreciate or de- preciate environmental factors in respect to every alleged criminal act and reach conclusions as to its criminality through a hazy maze of prejudices, pre-conceived opinions, and beliefs in so-called "rights and wrongs." If the criminologist meets this, small wonder the his- torian gains an appreciable confusion when he tries to observe the emergence of "illegalness" during the quickly moving days of the "roaring forties." The period 1830 to 1850 in a legal sense was one of formation. 'Codes civil and criminal as expounded in the English law had to be re-cast to meet the new land and the somewhat different people. For one thing, to speak of the trend in the particular rather than 1School of Graduate Studies, University of Pennsylvania. [857] 858 PAUL DOLAN the general, penalties as meted out by the harsh common law of England could not stand in America. Men were too valuable to hang for stealing a sheep (not horses) or trying to improve on one of the various bank notes of the time. Also it was inconsistent with free- dom and "equality" to condemn the poor because he was poor and to tolerate or even pamper the rich because he was rich. This rather inexpressible concept was definitely at variance with the legal code of England that hanged pickpockets but let off a noble who had manhandled an inferior with a light fine. The inadequacy of the English law showed itself early and we have Pennsylvania and Maryland in 1790 and 1809 respectively formally eliminating harsh 2 punishments for lesser crimes. Thus America prospered on leniency, but at a price. With the slow growth of the cities after the second quarrel with England, there appeared the first inklings of the infested hell-holes that were to increase with the country's expansion until to-day they present a problem not only for the police but for those who ponder long their nation's future. Lord Bryce writing years later grasped the real significance of the city in the body politic.3 The stench pots grew with industry, and the tariff was their nurse maid. It is in the city that we find the first emergence of the crimes against property and the rise of vice, and they have retained their notoriety as a city phenomenon without diminution. The American city has progressed far, but the baneful excres- cence of criminality and its attendant general immorality still root deep within its walls. The excoriation of the metropolitan areas as the beds of vice and wickedness of course has more point to-day than it did in the days of the stage coach and first railroads, but it is a fact that the rise of crime was concomitant with the growth of the city. The year 1820 was eventful in more respects than political. It was not merely noted as the year in which the Missouri question was allegedly settled, or the date in which Monroe re-established non-intercourse with Great Britain. In 1820 an act was passed by Congress relating to the slave trade, and along with other maritime regulations, it provided that the slave trade was piracy and the punishment upon conviction was death. There is no record of any execution under this law up to the Civil War, but the fact that the legislation existed furnishes an important link in our study of the crimes of the period. The point is that only a certain section of the 2 Hunt, G. "Life in America 100 Years Ago," p. 159 (New York, 1914). S Bryce, J. (Viscount) "American Commonwealth," Vol. II (N. Y., 1910). RISE OF CRIME country considered this a crime. This condition is to be met time after time during these years. Crimes of course are transgressions against the codified mores, and these in turn are based on customs. Strange as it may seem, customs varied greatly in the different parts of the country. If a member of the gentry south of Mason-Dixon's line decided to avenge his Southern honor at six paces with shot- guns, he did so. If he survived, he was a hero and might be sent to Congress. In the Northeast and generally .throughout the Middle Atlantic States such activity was frowned upon most severely, and the punishment of the law descended. In the North to help a slave reach freedom was to put one's self in line for the laurel wreath. In the South, the abettor of an escape stood in danger of "club law." Thus although the Act of 1820 did make the slave trade a piracy, little support could be expected from the South, and after 1850 the movement for restoration of the trade became a crusade, led by the fire-eaters who were literally fed-up with the damyankees. Sectionalism injecting its disturbing features into the politics of the nation, touched all the phases of life, and as it had its basis in the customs and beliefs of the people of each section, it went far in determining the moral standards. As the sections differed one from the other, so differed the morals. It is this fact that has made the stuay of the crimes of the Middle Period a succession of dif- ferences and comparisons rather than the treatment of a specifiq problem nicely bounded by set rules, forms, and features. America in 1830 to the War Between the States was a conglomeration of dif- ferences, and perhaps it still is, but unless this fact is appreciated, one cannot hope to understand why a gambler on the Mississippi was generally tolerated so long as he didn't violate "the code," while the indolent, idle fellow in New England might find himself jailed as a vagrant. The most notorious city in the country from a criminal statistics viewpoint in the early '50's was New York.4 The great trading metropolis met the wash of Europe; through it went the Germans toward the Northwest, the Scotch-Irish (whatever they are) into Western Pennsylvania and toward the Southwest, but the great mass of "low-class" Irish, the so-called "bilge of Europe" of the earlier immigration period in our country's history, i. e. until their place was taken by the Southeastern European, settled in the city proper. How so many were accommodated still remains a question. New 4 New York Herald-March 7. 1853. 860 PAUL DOLAN York was not an overly industrialized center, although the shipping trades gave a good bit of work. Nevertheless lower New York was Irish and remained so until supplanted by the Jew and the immigra- tion of 1890. It was the Irish therefore that served as the nucleus of the famous New York gangs. These were organized bands of boys and young men with a leader or sometimes several rival leaders whose chief purpose was to see that their men were in good fighting trim and that sufficient rows were stirred up to keep them in con- dition. Most of the fighting took place between the gangs them- selves. Under such appropriate banners as the "Dead Rabbits", "Plug Uglies", "Roach Guards", and the "Shirt Tails" the denizens of the underworld would sally forth. Usually they began their bat- tles close to dusk and they would last well into the night.
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